Lantern Lane

5x5 logic grid puzzles

Five houses and five categories is the classic size: it is exactly the shape of the zebra puzzle that appeared in Life International in 1962 and is often credited to Einstein. There are twenty-five facts to find and the clues rarely give any of them away for free.

These puzzles use the neighbour’s name plus four of door colour, pet, drink, job and hobby. Expect to spend twenty minutes or more on each.

The puzzles

Play any of them in your browser. Your progress is saved on this device, and every puzzle has the answer at the bottom of its page.

A taste of puzzle 1

5 neighbours live in houses 1 to 5. Here are its clues:

  1. The coffee drinker ☕ lives somewhere to the left of the rabbit owner 🐇.
  2. The juice drinker 🧃 lives directly to the left of the cocoa drinker 🍫.
  3. The pilot ✈️ lives somewhere to the left of the knitter 🧶.
  4. The coffee drinker ☕ lives directly to the left of the tortoise owner 🐢.
  5. Bram lives next door to the rabbit owner 🐇.
  6. Ada lives next door to the pilot ✈️.
  7. Cleo lives next door to the jazz fan 🎷.
  8. The tea drinker 🍵 lives next door to the goldfish owner 🐟.
  9. The tea drinker 🍵 lives next door to the baker 🥖.
  10. The cyclist 🚲 lives directly to the left of the water drinker 💧.
  11. The teacher 📚 is also the goldfish owner 🐟.
  12. The juice drinker 🧃 lives somewhere to the left of the painter 🎨.
  13. Cleo lives next door to the parrot owner 🦜.
  14. The pilot ✈️ lives somewhere to the left of the teacher 📚.
  15. The chemist ⚗️ lives next door to the cat owner 🐈.
  16. The chemist ⚗️ lives directly to the left of the gardener 🌱.
  17. The goldfish owner 🐟 lives somewhere to the left of Finn.
  18. The cat owner 🐈 lives somewhere to the left of the baker 🥖.
  19. The jazz fan 🎷 lives somewhere to the left of the parrot owner 🦜.
Play 5x5 logic grid puzzle 1

Keeping a 5x5 grid under control

Work one category pair at a time. A clue that links two categories, such as “the chemist keeps a parrot”, means those two always share a house; anything you rule out for one is ruled out for the other.

Dim each clue once it has nothing left to give. In the game this happens automatically, so the clue list shrinks to the ones still worth reading.

Even bigger

For a sixth house, try the 6x5 logic grid puzzles.

Or play today’s daily puzzle, a new street every day from a gentle Monday to a fiendish Sunday.